The Dance/Movement Therapy Alternate Route track (AR-DMT), seeks to inspire, develop and educate students in an age old paradigm—the use of dance and movement as a tool for healing the body, mind and spirit. The AR-DMT program is tailored to current and future therapists who seek to advance their practical knowledge of psychotherapy and the therapeutic relationship using the creative process involved in the art of dance. The AR-DMT offers sequential curriculum, taught by expert faculty, fulfilling the requirements set forth by the American Dance Therapy Association. The student that successfully completes AR-DMT coursework in addition to a Master’s in counseling or related field, will obtain the body of knowledge necessary to apply to the Dance Movement Therapy Certification Board for the R-DMT credential. Please also see admissions and application requirements. Applications are due June 1, 2019 for the cohort beginning in August 2019.
Course Offerings
All classes except Anatomy/Kinesiology need faculty approval prior to enrollment. Courses are $425/credit (28 total credits) with payment plans available.
Schedule below applies to the 2018-2019 cohort (first cohort)
Fall Semester (1st year)
- Experiential Anatomy/Kinesiology (1 credit)
- Laban Movement Analysis I (1 credit)
Spring Semester (1st year)
- Foundations of DMT (2 credits)
- The Neuroscience of Embodied Presence (2 credits)
Summer Semester (1st year)
- Dance/Movement Therapy I (2 credits)
- The Neuroscience of Embodied Presence II (2 credits)
- Laban Movement Analysis II (3 credits)
Elective Options:
Authentic Movement, 1:1 DMT, Older Adults, Children, Medical DMT
Fall Semester (2nd year)
- Laban Movement Analysis III (2 credits)
Dance/Movement Therapy II (Other Pioneers) (2 credits, weekend format)
Trauma-Informed Dance/Movement Therapy (2 credits, weekend format)
Spring Semester (2nd year)
- Group Dance/Movement Therapy (3 credits)
- Kestenberg Movement Profile (elective, 1 credit)
- Diversity Cultural Social Foundations (2 credits, weekend format)
- Internship (1 credit)
Summer Semester (2nd year)
- Population I (2 credits, weekend format) i.e. Older Adults, Children, Veterans, Medical DMT
- Population II (2 credits, weekend format)
- Internship/supervision (1 credit)
Course Descriptions
Cultural Humility and Responsibility through the Power of Story
As dance/movement therapists we are bound by our code of ethics, which serves as our guide to upholding professional values and standards of conduct. Multicultural competence and promotion of social justice are included in the code. Additionally, dance/movement therapists are expected to examine how their own cultural background influences their place within the therapeutic relationship. In this course, students will be invited to examine and expand their own belief systems and world views in service of providing ethical and competent care for clients. The vehicle for this process will be conducted through story; the stories we have been told and the stories we tell ourselves, which all live in our bodies, our movement, and in our relationships. The code of ethics also charges dance/movement therapists with cultivating awareness of oppression, power, and privilege. In this course students will explore how power, privilege, oppression, and collective liberation intersect with our work as dance/movement therapists. Students will explore how key features of oppression show up on societal/cultural, institutional, interpersonal, and individual levels. By observing and making contact with the ways in which we have been affected by dynamics of privilege and oppression we can begin to repattern habitual ways of being that may interfere with cultivating connection with others. In this course, systematic oppression will be looked at through the lens of trauma providing students the opportunity to apply trauma-informed and healing centered approaches to their therapeutic work.
Experiential Anatomy/Kinesiology
Anatomy/Kinesiology will cover basic human anatomy with an overview of bony landmarks of the body, major muscle groups, and general workings of the musculoskeletal system. Students will begin to understand the complexities of the human body through movement, reading, drawing, writing, and hands-on partner exercises. Geared towards application of the body in motion for dancers, choreographers, dance/movement therapists and the like, that want to deepen their embodiment and understanding of the amazing ways our body works.
Foundations of Dance/Movement Therapy
Course Description: This course will provide the history, early development, basic foundations, and basic principles of dance/movement therapy. A variety of dance styles that remain at the root of dance/movement therapy will be acknowledged in order to understand how the methodologies of the early dance/movement therapy pioneers emerged. The role of culture and society will also be explored as related to the development of DMT in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, rehabilitation, arts in education, community, and healthcare settings. Comparison and differentiation between dance/movement therapy and other mind/body approaches will also be explored in order to better understand what remains unique about the healing process of dance/movement therapy.
Approved by the ADTA
Laban Movement Analysis I
Course Description: Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF) give dance/movement therapists a common language to study movement and its developmental aspects, informing our relationship to self, other, and the environment. LMA I contexts LMA and BF in history and within the field of dance/movement therapy. This course provides: a framework for how to structure and approach movement observation, an understanding of the cultural and therapeutic implications of Body Knowledge/Body Prejudice and a forum for the student to identify their own movement preferences and limitations. LMA I will also provide a general overview of the core principles of movement and of Rudolf Laban’s taxonomy of human movement. The course will be grounded through both didactic and movement experientials to support multiple learning preferences. LMA I will provide the foundation for all other LMA classes to follow.
Approved by the ADTA
The Neuroscience of Embodied Presence: Moving within the Inter-subjective Realm
Course Description: Embedded within the intersubjective relationship is the opportunity for present moment experiences of self and other. As dance/movement therapists we are utilizing our bodies as intuitive processors within the therapeutic relationship and thus in need to be conscious of how we create presence in our own bodies for self-care and within the relationship for intervention and healing. Current discoveries in neuroscience and mindfulness find the field of psychology integrating the mind and the body in ways that are both new and creative. This course introduces students to in-roads for creating presence, mindful self-care, identification of personal creative process and critical inquiry of neuroscientific discussions that integrate and navigate the flow of mind and the flow of bodies in movement.
Approved by the ADTA